Doorstep and cold-call solar sales: your rights

Why solar attracts this

Not because solar is a bad product. Because the sales conditions are unusually favourable to pressure:

• the sums are large enough to fund commission
• the technology is unfamiliar enough that most buyers cannot evaluate a quote
• the savings are genuinely uncertain, which makes optimistic figures hard to disprove
• there is a real policy tailwind, so the pitch is easy to make sound urgent
• and the person at the door is frequently a commission-only agent for a lead generator, not the company that would do the work

None of that makes a doorstep sale a bad deal by definition. It does mean the ordinary protections matter more here than in most purchases.

What the law requires them to tell you

For an off-premises contract, the trader must give you specified information before you are bound — including, at paragraphs (l), (m) and (n) of Schedule 2, the information about your right to cancel.

Regulation 19 makes withholding it a criminal offence:

A trader is guilty of an offence if the trader enters into an off-premises contract to which regulation 10 applies but fails to give the consumer the information listed in paragraph (l), (m) or (n) of Schedule 2 in accordance with that regulation.

with the penalty:

A person who is guilty of an offence under paragraph (1) is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale.

Tactics worth recognising

Described so you can name them, not because every salesperson uses them.

The expiring discount. A price available only today. Sometimes genuine, usually not, and the correct response is identical: a price that cannot survive a week of thought is not a price to accept.

The survey that becomes a contract. A free survey, followed by paperwork to sign “so we can book the surveyor”. Read what you sign — particularly anything authorising work to begin during the cancellation period.

The government-scheme implication. Nobody knocking on your door is from a government scheme. Grants exist and are narrower than usually implied; an agent implying official status is misdescribing themselves.

Savings with no assumptions attached. A single confident annual saving is not a result. Ask for the assumed generation, the self-consumption share, the import rate and the export rate. Our kWp vs kWh page gives you the arithmetic to check it against.

Finance presented as a payment. “It’s only £X a month” is not a price. Ask for the total amount payable, the APR, and the term. And note that credit can be an advantage — see section 75.

The neighbours’ scheme. A claimed group discount because others in your street have signed. Ask which addresses, then ask them.

Refusal to leave a written quotation. There is no legitimate reason for this.

What to do at the door

Do not sign anything on the day. There is no offer worth accepting that will not survive until tomorrow.

Ask for everything in writing and for the company’s full name and registration number. Check it at Companies House before you do anything else.

Get two more quotes, and compare kWp against modelled kWh on each.

Check certification — MCS for the installer and the products, and whether they belong to a consumer code. Our MCS page explains what it does and does not tell you.

Ask who you are contracting with. The agent, the lead generator and the installer are frequently three different companies.

If you have already signed

Work out your deadline, and treat it as urgent. Fourteen days from the day the contract was entered into. If you were not given the cancellation information, you have far longer — but do not rely on that if you can act now.

Cancel in writing and keep proof of sending. No reason required. Full detail on cancellation rights.

Check whether you signed an express request for early commencement. It decides what you pay if work has started.

If a deposit was paid by credit card or on finance, and the cash price of the item is over £100 and not more than £30,000, section 75 may make the lender jointly liable.

Report it. If the cancellation information was never given, that is a potential criminal offence, and trading standards — via Citizens Advice — is the route.

If the doorstep visit was fine

Worth saying: plenty of solar is sold competently by people who leave a written quote and go away.

The test is simple. A good salesperson leaves you better able to compare their offer with someone else’s. A bad one leaves you feeling you must decide now. That distinction holds regardless of the technology.